Steam turbines have been well known in the art for many years, with the modern steam turbine having apparently been invented by the Englishman Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, an invention which was later scaled-up by the American George Westinghouse. The classic steam turbine, in perhaps its most simplistic form, is illustrated as prior art in FIG. 1A, showing the entry of steam to cause the turbine blades to spin, which in turn causes a generator to spin, thus spinning the generator to produce electricity. The steam enters the apparatus of FIG. 1A through one or more valves, it being known that the rotational speed of the turbine is controlled by the varying of the number of valves, and/or by positioning of such valves and/or by changing the volumetric opening through such one or more such valves.
It is also well-known in this art to use a governor with the valve system discussed above to control the rotational speed of the turbine by controlling the steam flow.
It is also known in this art to use microprocessor based control systems marketed by the Woodward Governor Company, located at 1000 East Drake Road, Fort Collins, Colo. 80525, designed to function with speed monitors available from other sources.
Moreover, it is known in the prior art to measure the rotational speed, i.e., the timed number of revolutions of the turbine shaft, to control the hydraulic actuators involved with the controlled movement of the valves and thus control of the steam turbine. These types of known systems are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,152 to Yashuhiro Tennichi and Naganobu Honda, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,590 to Toshihiko Higashi and Yasuhiro Tennicho.